Electrically Conductive Polymers for Additive Manufacturing

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 16; no. 5; pp. 5337 - 5354
• Main Authors: Yan, Yinjia, Han, Miao, Jiang, Yixue, Ng, Evelyn Ling Ling, Zhang, Yanni, Owh, Cally, Song, Qing, Li, Peng, Loh, Xian Jun, Chan, Benjamin Qi Yu, Chan, Siew Yin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 07.02.2024
• Subjects: additive manufacturing; electronics; 4D printing; 3D printing; conductive polymers
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c13258

The use of electrically conductive polymers (CPs) in the development of electronic devices has attracted significant interest due to their unique intrinsic properties, which result from the synergistic combination of physicochemical properties in conventional polymers with the electronic properties of metals or semiconductors. Most conventional methods adopted for the fabrication of devices with nonplanar morphologies are still challenged by the poor ionic/electronic mobility of end products. Additive manufacturing (AM) brings about exciting prospects to the realm of CPs by enabling greater design freedom, more elaborate structures, quicker prototyping, relatively low cost, and more environmentally friendly electronic device creation. A growing variety of AM technologies are becoming available for three-dimensional (3D) printing of conductive devices, i.e., vat photopolymerization (VP), material extrusion (ME), powder bed fusion (PBF), material jetting (MJ), and lamination object manufacturing (LOM). In this review, we provide an overview of the recent research progress in the area of CPs developed for AM, which advances the design and development of future electronic devices. We consider different AM techniques, vis-à-vis, their development progress and respective challenges in printing CPs. We also discuss the material requirements and notable advances in 3D printing of CPs, as well as their potential electronic applications including wearable electronics, sensors, energy storage and conversion devices, etc. This review concludes with an outlook on AM of CPs.